Construction began April 4 on a project to rehabilitate two Interstate 76 (Schuylkill Expressway) viaducts, including the 6,120-ft.-long structure between Interstate 676 and University Avenue in Center City Philadelphia and a 345-ft.-long structure over Route 23 and Arrowmink Creek in West Conshohocken Borough, Montgomery County.

Construction began April 4 on a project to rehabilitate two Interstate 76 (Schuylkill Expressway) viaducts, including the 6,120-ft.-long structure between Interstate 676 and University Avenue in Center City Philadelphia and a 345-ft.-long structure over Route 23 and Arrowmink Creek in West Conshohocken Borough, Montgomery County.

"Pennsylvania's ongoing bridge inspection program has been closely monitoring these heavily-used, 60-plus year-old structures to ensure that they continue to function as designed," Gov. Tom Wolf said. "Their analysis of the hundreds of structural components that comprise each viaduct points to the need to address the inevitable deterioration now so as to safely handle the demands of tens of thousands of motorists who use the Schuylkill Expressway each day."

The two-year project will require numerous overnight single lane closures and full closures in one direction at a time, as well as a limited number of weekend daytime single lane closures or full overnight closures on either the eastbound or westbound expressway in Center City.

For the first two weeks of construction, the contractor will be working on Thursday through Sunday nights on both the eastbound side and westbound side of I-76 in Philadelphia to clear work zone drainage inlets, complete surveying activities and perform other preliminary work items prior to the start of repairs on the eastbound side of the viaduct that will continue through the end of 2019.

No on- or off-ramps within the work zone are scheduled to be closed during preliminary construction activities.

Under this project, PennDOT will rehabilitate the 289-span Center City Philadelphia viaduct and the three-span Montgomery County bridge over the 2019 and 2020 construction seasons by repairing or replacing the concrete decks' expansion joints; repairing deteriorated sections of their concrete decks; rehabilitating numerous piers, columns and other sub-structure components; repairing the viaducts' drainage systems; and repaving the decks with a concrete overlay.

Repairs to the eastbound side of the Center City viaduct are scheduled to be completed in 2019. Repairs to the westbound side of the Center City viaduct will finish in 2020.

Repairs to the structure in West Conshohocken Borough are expected to begin in May or June 2019 and will be completed by November 2019. These repairs will be done using single lane overnight closures seven days a week between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

During repairs to the Center City structure, one side of the expressway at a time will be reduced to a single lane or closed completely overnight. In addition, one side of the expressway at a time will be reduced to a single lane during weekend daytime hours a minimum of 10 times eastbound (in 2019) and 10 times westbound (2020) on non-holiday and select weekends.

For more information, visit I76viaduct.com.

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